Cavalry FC of Calgary have been the class of the Canadian Premier League throughout its inaugural season and put their quality on display again in the penultimate instalment of the Al (Alberta) Classico.

Cavalry were the better side in a 1-0 win against FC Edmonton at Clarke Field on Wednesday in a game with an edge fitting of the provincial rivalry.

“That’s what you want in a provincial battle and a derby,” said Cavalry head coach Tommy Wheeldon. “Sometimes they’re not the prettiest, if you think of the Celtic and Rangers, the Liverpool and Everton and the Milan derbies, people are wearing their heart on their sleeve and I think what you saw (Wednesday) was another side of the derby and it was a feisty one. Edmonton wanted to beat us and we refused to lose.”

Former FC Edmonton captain Nik Ledgerwood scored on a penalty in the 28th minute to give Cavalry the win. Ledgerwood celebrated the goal accordingly, which did not sit too well with the FC Edmonton supporters behind the net. Sometimes it is customary in soccer not to celebrate goals against former teams.

“I knew I was going to celebrate,” smiled Ledgerwood. “I was confident, I hit a hell of a penalty in Winnipeg so I was confident to go step up and do it again.”

Cavalry earned the penalty after FC Edmonton defender Amer Didic took down Jose Escalante just inside the penalty area. Escalante was running parallel to the net and Didic did not need to make a lunging challenge, which was ill-timed, giving referee David Gantar little choice but to award the penalty.

“That can’t happen, it just can’t happen, but he knows that and he’s a good player,” said FC Edmonton head coach Jeff Paulus. “He’s a good defender and I’ve been hyping him up. It’s a mistake, he had players in behind him to give him cover and there was no need to go to ground. He made the choice to do that and it cost us. It’s a penalty and you can never give the ref that decision to make.”

The game was an ill-tempered affair with a number of late tackles from both sides.

Tomi Ameobi should have tied it in the second half, benefitting from a great run by Edem Mortotsi, who collected the ball deep in his own half and blew through the Cavalry midfield. Mortotsi laid the ball off for Ameobi to run onto along against goalkeeper Niko Giantsopoulos. Ameobi, however, hit his shot right at Giantsopoulos who turned it away with his knee.

“I tried to fire it back across the ‘keeper and didn’t wrap my foot on the back of the ball enough,” Ameobi said. “We’ve got the quality on the team to create chances like that, I think we saw that in the second half. But all in all in the second half if we start the game in the second half, it’s going to be different.”

The opportunity gave FC Edmonton some life and they dictated the play for the next few minutes until midfielder Jeannot Esua was sent off with a straight red card after flooring Escalante with a forearm shiver.

Esua had fouled Escalante prior to the sending off and when the Calvary midfielder stood up and charged at his opponent to voice his displeasure, the FC Edmonton midfield came back with a forearm.

Down a man with 15 minutes to play, it was always going to be difficult for FC Edmonton to score, especially considering they had not scored a goal in the three previous meetings with 11 players.

Oumar Diouck did come close, however on a free kick from the 20 yards out, bending his shot over the wall and forcing Giantsopoulos to make an outstanding diving save.

Deep into extra time Dominique Malonga should have added a second with a breakaway from half, but his last touch was too heavy heading in on goal, allowing FC Edmonton goaltender Connor James to come out and stop the shot.

The win improved Cavalry’s CPL record against FC Edmonton to 3-0-1 this season. The two teams play for a final time on Oct. 19 to close out the season.

Cavalry have already clinched a spot in the CPL final by winning the Spring Competition. With their win against Edmonton they moved into first place in the Fall Competition standings as well.

“We’re treating this like the treble (three championships), spring season, fall season and the championship final,” Wheeldon said. “Also what the boys are playing for is to be the undisputed champions. If you add the points together, that’s a regular season in most countries and that’s how we’re approaching it.”